Message from Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in Support of World Environment Day 2014 - "Raise Your Voice Not the Sea Level"

The
UN International Year of Small Island Developing States
(SIDS)
comes at an
important moment in the evolution of the international climate change process.
2014
is
the
year
when nations need to lift their eyes beyond business as usual to one of greater
ambition in order to deliver on a new and meaningful climate agreeme
nt in Paris in
2015.
Small island
s
along with the Arctic and many coastal zones
are
on
the frontline of
extreme climate and sea level rise
that risks lives, livelihoods and even entire
countries
.

Small islands
are also leaders under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change
(UNFCCC)
both morally and practically in terms of reminding nations of the risks and
collective responsibilities to act while
driving ambitious
national and international
action
--
not least in championing the establishment
last year
o
f the
Warsaw
international mechanism for loss and
damage
.

SIDS
are
also actively
leverag
ing
the many
opportunities and mechanisms that the UN
climate change regime has
generated
to
support
countries
towards a more sustainable
future
. From
an
economy
-
wide integration of climate change adaptation and disaster
risk
management in Samoa
to improved adaptation of water resources in the
Comoros
,
many
of these nations
have undertaken National Adaptation Programmes of Action
under the Convention.

Similarly,
from wind power projects in Cape Verde, the Dominican Republic and
Jamaica to methane capture in Papua New Guinea and Cuba, the islands have been
leveraging the UN Clean Development Mechanism to build their own clean energy
futures.

However, the
global effort to
deal with climate change is
still not
enough
—
greenhouse
gas concentrations in the atmosphere are at their highest for 800,000 years
.
Yet,
the
combined effort of
governments and business, cities and citizens
to act against climate
change
has never
been higher
.

It is
time to
push this groundswell
forward
towards
a
new
a
greement
that
must include a
global commitment to reduce greenhouse emissions rapidly enough
to keep a global
temperature rise under 2 degrees Celsius
this century
.
This is the
promise the world
must deliver to the
Small
Island
Developing
States
.

Our
pathway is
clear
.
Clean energy economies
produce
profits without pollution,
better
livelihoods in
stable industries, restor
e
health and wider wealth
and preserve
water and
essential resources.
I
call upon all to raise their voices and their ambition
now,
on
World Environment Day in June and throughout the journey to that new universal
agreement in 2015
.